Los Angeles Lakers: Damian Lillard to LA is fun, but impossible

The Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers share something in common this season: they were both eliminated in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.

This prompted many Laker fans to look towards improvements the team could make in the offseason to regain the throne for the 2021-22 season. The team still has an elite superstar duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis but another star never hurt anyone.

Portland fans, meanwhile, are feeling a bit different. The Blazers’ continued lack of playoff success has led many to forecast what Lillard’s future may hold outside of Portland. Throw in a cryptic Instagram post with a Nipsey Hussle lyric and Lillard’s future is even more uncertain.

Every team in the NBA would obviously benefit from adding Damian Lillard and there is a contingent of hopeful Laker fans that are crossing their fingers that Dame can create a new big three in LA. “Dame to LA” was trending on Twitter after his Instagram post and the Lakers have been included in many people’s list of teams that should be inquiring for Lillard.

While fun, Damian Lillard joining the Los Angeles Lakers is impossible.

Damian Lillard alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis would truly be a sight to behold and would somehow one-up the big three that is currently setting offensive records in Brooklyn. So go ahead and put Lillard on the Lakers on NBA 2K21, but that is as far as the thought experiment should go.

Expecting the Lakers to even come close to getting Lillard is setting up for disappointment. The Lakers acquiring Lillard this offseason is essentially impossible. A 0.01% chance of happening.

The first thing to consider is Lillard’s situation. This is not the case of a player having one more year under contract and essentially telling his franchise he is going to walk after the year no matter what. That is what Anthony Davis did and it made sense for New Orleans to get what they could for him.

Lillard has a brand-new five-year contract extension kicking in next season. The Blazers have all the leverage here. Sure, players have more power than ever in the NBA and Lillard could try and hold Portland hostage like James Harden did, but it has not reached that boiling point yet.

And even if he does do that, there are plenty of teams that can offer so much more than the Los Angeles Lakers can. What are the Lakers going to do, sign-and-trade Dennis Schroder and Talen Horton-Tucker alongside Kyle Kuzma and future draft picks?

That is scraps for Lillard. Schroder is an average point guard at best and he would have to agree to this, THT has potential but it far from being Damian Lillard and Kuzma is a young bench role player that has probably already hit his ceiling.

As for the picks, the Lakers are already tied up in the immediate future with the New Orleans Pelicans and would have to trade picks years in advance. However, teams are only allowed to trade picks within a seven-year window, pushing the Lakers’ limits to 2028.

The Lakers stop paying New Orleans in 2025, so the team could essentially offer four first-round picks from 2025-2028, making some of them pick swaps in order to adhere to the Stepien Rule.

Is Damian Lillard really only going to go for four future first-round picks when Jrue Holiday went for five? It would be one thing if it was four picks in the near future and the Blazers knew they were going to be good. That is not the case. Those picks are so ahead in the future and the Lakers could still be picking in the 20s by then.

It is just not going to happen. The odds of Damian Lillard even being traded already seem slim and if he does end up moving, it won’t be to Los Angeles. At least not with the Los Angeles Lakers.